Health & Safety Professionals In Favour Of Imprisonment

Health & Safety Professionals In Favour Of
ImprisonmentAUCKLAND, New
Zealand, 5 February 2013

How should company directors and
senior corporate executives be punished for severe breaches
of workplace health and safety standards resulting in
death?

The 48 health and safety practitioners who took
part in Safeguard magazine’s recent online survey were
clear: 77% were in favour of having imprisonment as an
option should a new offence of corporate manslaughter be
introduced.

Respondents were less certain about which
agency should be able to pursue corporate manslaughter
charges, with 46% saying the health and safety regulator and
40% opting for the police.

The question of corporate
manslaughter has come up for discussion in the wake of the
Pike River mine disaster.

Most survey respondents – 88%
– were already aware section 56 of the Health and Safety
in Employment Act already provides for imprisonment of
senior company officers for up to two years, though no one
has ever been jailed for a health and safety offence in the
20 years the HSE Act has been in effect.

However, only 31%
of respondents felt that a new corporate manslaughter
offence would help reduce workplace fatalities, while 60%
would prefer the regulator make more use of section 56
rather than have a new, separate offence of corporate
manslaughter.

As well as a full survey analysis, the
latest Jan/Feb 2013 edition of Safeguard also
contains:

• A Bay of Plenty health & safety consultant
calls the ethics of the profession into question;• Two
lawyers explain how a recent court decision limits the
extent to which a company acting as a principal (in a
construction project, for example) must monitor the safety
of the technical aspects of work they have contracted to
others.• The CEO of the Institute of Directors
welcomes the development of a code of practice for health &
safety governance but cautions against a one-size-fits-all
approach.• Half a dozen experienced health & safety
trainers give their tips for making training a worthwhile
experience which really makes a difference.• The
former head of the National Occupational Health and Safety
Advisory Committee – abolished by the current Government
– says the previous Government’s Minister of Labour,
Ruth Dyson, abolished the former OSH service of the
Department of Labour because of union lobbying that OSH
would be more effective if it was merged into wider
Department employment relations operations.

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